Mumbai: Indian markets will take cues from industrial output and inflation data this week. Industrial output for December is expected to rise 1.1% after contracting slightly in November, reported Economic Times. The WPI inflation number though is likely to slip to 6.9% in January from 7.1% in December.

US markets ended higher on Friday on optimism over improving prospects of global growth, reported MarketWatch. The Dow Industrial Average climbed 0.4%, the S&P 500 index gained 0.6% and Nasdaq Composite index was up 0.9%.

Markets in Hong Kong, China, Singapore and South Korea are all closed on Monday for the Lunar New Year, while Japan is shut for National Foundation Day.

The railway ministry may increase passenger fares or raise freight charges during the Railway Budget to be presented on 26 February following the recent diesel price hike, which has put an additional burden of Rs.3,300 crore on the railways.

Power woes in the country will likely continue as the government may grant environmental clearance only to the import of high-grade coal, which could stymie plans of increasing power generation capacity at large plants that depend on overseas fuel supply, reported Mint.

ICICI Bank’s managing director and chief executive officer Chanda Kochhar in an interview to Mint said, the bank is back on the growth path and can grow a little higher than the industry average, and aspire for 18% return on assets.

Hindalco Industries Ltd will be under pressure following a Business Standard report that it will get transfer pricing tax notice from the income-tax department. Hindalco earned fees while giving corporate guarantees to foreign banks that gave loans to its subsidiary AV Minerals, Netherlands for acquisition of Novelis Inc. in 2007.

Mahindra and Mahindra Ltd will see some action after it posted a 29.6% rise in profit in the December quarter boosted by sales of diesel vehicles and SUVs. Net sales rose 24.7% to Rs.10,242.57 crore.

Lastly, over the last decade, India has emerged as the preferred destination for software products, rather than services because of skilled, low-cost labour and English speaking work force, reported Wall Street Journal - India Real Time.